By Ian Haywood At the end of February 2023 my colleague Mary Shannon and I made a trip to The National Archives (TNA) at Kew, London. There were several overlapping reasons for the visit. Firstly, we were scheduled for a PhD supervision with Mollie Clarke, an employee of the TNA, who is in the final … More Reynolds in The National Archives
By Sophie Raine After seven years, I finally came to the end of my PhD and submitted my thesis ‘”Haunts of Infamy”: penny dreadfuls and aberrant urban spaces”. The first part of my thesis’ title, as many may have spotted, comes from G. W. M Reynolds’s best-selling serial The Mysteries of London (1844-46) and is … More Reflections on Reynolds
The Reynolds Society are incredibly excited to announce the launch of the brand new edited collection G. W. M. Reynolds Reimagined: Studies in Authorship, Radicalism, and Genre, 1830-1870. The collection was co-edited by Mary L. Shannon (Reynolds Society President) and Jennifer Conary (Reynolds Society Vice-President), and features work from emerging and established scholars alike. The … More Book Launch: G. W. M. Reynolds Reimagined
By David T. Dixon In July 2022, I shared research that revealed a lasting friendship between George W.M. Reynolds and English Garibaldian Hugh Forbes. Further inquiries into their social circles uncovered important facts about Forbes’s eight years in Paris while adding additional context to Reynolds’s time on the Continent.[1] Numerous scholars cite an 1848 British … More The Prodigal Brother: Edward D. Reynolds
By Stephen Basdeo Who was Victorian England’s best-selling author? There are many contenders for this title. Charles Dickens would obviously have a claim. Yet as you’re reading this short article on the G.W.M. Reynolds Society’s website, presumably you think that the eponymous author of some of the Victorian period’s most famous popular literary works also … More “Victorian England’s Bestselling Author” and Reynolds in Brazil: Two New Publications
By Dave McCall (AKA David Ebsworth) I first ran into George W. M. Reynolds about ten years ago. I was writing the first of my Spanish Civil War novels, The Assassin’s Mark, and I needed to find an appropriate real-life newspaper for which fictional protagonist and journalist Jack Telford might work. It needed to be … More Reynolds’s Afterlives in the Historical Fiction of David Ebsworth
Earlier this month, the Reynolds Society took to the BAVS 2022 stage in the hopes of convincing a room of Victorianists that our discipline needs G. W. M. Reynolds. One of only five single author panels at the conference (Reynolds shared this honour with Dickens, Gaskell, Hardy, and James), the Society’s roundtable established Reynolds’s place … More The G. W. M. Reynolds Society at BAVS 2022
By: David Dixon The early life of G. W. M Reynolds is shrouded in mystery, despite the efforts of a small but dedicated cadre of scholars, researchers, and enthusiasts. A conspicuous dearth of primary sources, including personal papers and family correspondence are one reason why the best-selling English novelist of the Victorian era remains an … More Radical Rakes: The Friendship of G. W. M. Reynolds and Hugh Forbes
By: Anna Gasperini When I ask myself about how I got to study George W. M. Reynolds and his work, I think the most appropriate answer would be: I took the scenic route. This being Reynolds, of course, ‘scenic’ means dark and labyrinthine. In my case, it started from an interest in Victorian literature, in … More Follow the Bodies: A Scenic Route from The Mysteries of London to the Medical Humanities.
By: Hayley Braithwaite On Saturday 7th November 1846, the first seven pages of G. W. M. Reynolds’s Wagner, The Wehr-Wolf, could be purchased for one penny. Serialised in Reynolds’s Miscellany of Romance, General Literature, Science, and Art, the text appeared weekly for nine months alongside a variety of articles, essays, and advertisements edited (and often … More Collectible Reynolds: Pennies to (Thousands of) Pounds
G. W. M. Reynolds Society 